A deep dive with Evie Grace Illustration.
Her pieces are intentionally designed to incite people to acknowledge and act upon important social and environmental issues as well as promoting “discussion and learning”.
An artist since her youth, Evie’s gone from being “that kid who dragged a giant art folder around school”, all the way to studying at the Gray’s school of Art in Aberdeen and sparking a love for illustration.
As was the case with many, Evie had to adapt during the pandemic and strove to “make a career out of her creativity”. She took the plunge into self-employment and freelance illustration at the very beginning of the pandemic.
Evie explained that “I created hard-hitting pieces but I also created a lot of comforting pieces. I wanted to comfort others, but I also think it was my way of comforting myself.” To avoid burnout from these powerful and often political pieces, Evie turns to drawing things she loves such as “mountains, coffee, plants, food and drink”, finding it “very therapeutic”.
Subtly but poignantly highlighting the irresponsible wastefulness of reusable masks, “Masks Or JellyFish?” draws attention to an issue missed by most.
The wastefulness of disposable masks has definitely flown under the radar during the pandemic with public health taking precedence, that doesn’t mean we can ignore it however. Many adopted reusable masks from the get-go, many didn’t. We’re now at a point however, where nobody should be facilitating this wastefulness any longer.
Showcased on the 5th edition of our Purist Art Gin, “Masks or JellyFish?” (pictured above), was the illustration with the quickest turnaround time for Evie. She broke down her artistic process for us. “I start with research - if it’s a hard hitting piece, this is often after a period of ‘doom-scrolling’ and falling into a slight pit of despair (if i’m being completely honest).”
What follows this period of “anger and passion” is typically a frenzy of mind mapping and experimental sketching. A final sketch is then reached and scanned in order to be drawn digitally using a graphics tablet, thus arriving at the final illustration!
Recently, Evie created another illustration that massively inspired us. The piece in question was her emotive “Solidarity” piece, created in support and solidarity of the people of Ukraine during the ongoing Humanitarian crisis, caused by the Russian invasion.
We wanted to help in any way that we could. Evie kindly said we could use her design on a label. This allowed us to create our charity #StandWithUkraine bottle, with all the profits going directly to the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian appeal.
We’d like to wholeheartedly thank Evie for the use of her “Masks or JellyFish?” and “Solidarity” illustrations, thanks to her we’ve created two of our most special and important Purist Art Gin editions.
If you’d like to know more about Evie or check out her work, links to her website and socials are below.
Links
https://www.eviegraceillustration.com/
https://www.instagram.com/eviegraceillustration/?hl=en